


Music Haunts Her

by inkcake



Category: Twilight
Genre: Angst, Gen, new moon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-04
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-06-03 20:23:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,468
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19471504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkcake/pseuds/inkcake
Summary: “In one aspect, yes, I believe in ghosts, but we create them. We haunt ourselves.”- Laurie Halse AndersonEdward promised it would be as if he never existed, but he didn’t take the music with him.





	Music Haunts Her

Forks, Washington was a terribly boring and quiet town. It was especially quiet just before 5 a.m. when most of the town was still asleep, nestled snuggly in their beds, safe and warm against the dropping temperatures autumn had brought with it. 

There was, however, one exception. 

The small, usually peaceful home that belonged to the Forks chief of police was filled with high pitched, blood curdling screams. 

Bella Swan’s red, tear filled eyes shot open, awoken by her own screaming. She stared up at the ceiling, waiting for her pounding heart to calm. She couldn’t seem to keep the nightmares at bay no matter how hard she tried. And she had tried. For awhile at least. Until she thought about what not having them would mean. That she might forget about-

_Stop._

Using her blanket as a makeshift tissue, Bella wiped the tears from her face. She looked at the red glowing numbers on her alarm clock. 

**4:58 a.m.**

Great, she thought with a roll of her eyes. Two more minutes before she had to be up to play pretend-to-be-a-functioning-human-being for the entire day. 

In order to keep from being shipped off to Florida to live with her mother, she had promised Charlie she would go back to school and at least attempt to make it to the next grade. She personally couldn’t care less though. She found it hard to care about anything anymore ever since he-

She winced.

_Don’t think about it._

She promised Charlie and her mother she would try and try she would. They deserved that much from her.

Untangling herself from the blankets that had snaked around her during her nightmare, she sat on the edge of her bed and sighed. The thought of having to deal with her classmates blatant stares and not-so-subtle whispers behind her back was already overwhelming.

“One thing at a time.” She sighed softly to herself.

She crossed the room to stand at her dresser, hoping to find something clean to wear. She couldn’t remember the last time she had done laundry. She felt a twinge of guilt. Poor Charlie. 

Suddenly the room was filled with the soft melodic sound of a piano being played. A light sweet sounding song. It was beautiful. 

Bella felt sick. 

Whipping her head around, she searched frantically for the source of the music. Her eyes landed on her alarm clock. She let out the sob that had lodged itself in her throat as she grabbed for the offensive object. Bella hurled the clock across the room, tearing the power cord out of the wall before sending it sailing through the air. It crashed to the floor with a loud crack and she was on it instantly. Picking up the small black device she slammed it back onto the floor. 

Over and over and over again.

Bella looked every bit as mad as she felt. Eyes wide, chest heaving, and hair wild around her, she dropped it as suddenly as she had picked it up and rushed to the bathroom. 

Throwing up the toilet seat, she emptied her stomach of what little food Charlie had coaxed into her the night before. 

Glimpses of the past she had tried so hard not to think about rushed to the front of her mind. Image after image. Memory after memory. A mental flip book designed to torture her.

_Her first visit to the Cullen house. Loving Esme, a warm smile on her face, pushing Edward towards his piano to play for her for the first time._

_Edward’s skilled and graceful fingers gliding over the ivory keys, playing the most beautiful music she had ever heard._

_An angel creating a song just for her. Her lullaby. The happy tears she had cried._

_Her favorite sound in the world, Edward’s perfect soothing voice, singing her softly to sleep every night._

A cry was ripped from her throat and she rocked herself back and forth as she wrapped her arms around her stomach, trying to hold the pieces of herself together. The pain was unlike anything she had ever felt. Not even the bite from James had felt like this. Hurt as intensely as this. It was as if someone had used a dull, rusty knife to cut a hole right through her. 

She pulled her shirt up to stare at her pale, unblemished stomach. She ran her fingers lightly over the smooth skin there. How could it be that there were no cuts? No scars? No blood? How was it possible to be in so much pain yet it not be physically visible? 

Curling back into a tight ball, Bella moved to lay down. The cool tile felt nice against her hot, clammy skin and she closed her eyes. 

_Maybe I can just spend the rest of the day here.  
Away from everyone’s judging eyes and endless questions._ The thought soothed her.

It was an hour before Bella gathered enough strength to brush her teeth and make her way back to her bedroom. 

She dressed slowly, not in any rush to get to school faster. Somewhere in the back of her mind a voice nagged at her for not showering first, but she couldn’t bring herself to care. She barely had enough energy to change her clothes. The only reason she even bothered was for Charlie’s sake. He already worried about her too much. 

“Hey, Bells, I’m home! You up?” Charlie yelled from downstairs as he walked through the front door. 

_Speak of the devil._

Charlie had been working overtime lately after an increase in missing persons reports in the last few weeks. While he hated to leave Bella alone at night, everyone at the station had been pulling long, odd hours and he had hoped giving her some space would help her sort out her feelings. He was at a loss for what else to do.

“I’m up!” Bella tried to yell back. She wasn’t sure if he could even hear her. Her throat was so sore from the endless cycle of screaming and crying it made it hard to speak above a whisper. 

Bella heard the familiar sound of her fathers work boots hitting the floor, followed by the creak of their wooden stairs as Charlie made his way up. 

Charlie leaned in the doorframe of Bella’s room, looking every bit as exhausted as he felt.

“All ready for school?” He asked lightly, trying his best to sound casual.

Bella managed to give him a small smile.

“All ready.” She hated how scratchy and weak her voice sounded.

“Did you eat breakfast? I could make some eggs.” Bella heard the hope in his voice and wanted to groan. 

Food was one of their biggest issues. Charlie didn’t think she ate enough and Bella’s appetite was all but nonexistent. One of his conditions for allowing her to stay in Forks was that she eat more. 

She wouldn’t fight him on it today. Too much. 

“I’m not hun-“ 

Before Charlie could interrupt her, Bella thought better of it. 

“I mean breakfast sounds good, but maybe just toast for now? Please?” Bella wasn’t sure if she would be able to keep even a piece of toast down but it was worth a shot to avoid another fight. 

Compromise. To keep the peace. To stay in Forks. 

Charlie looked like he wanted to argue but he sighed instead. 

“Okay. Toast I can do. With butter.” It wasn’t a question.

“With butter.” Bella agreed. 

Charlie turned to leave but something caught his eye and he stopped suddenly, both eyebrows raised. 

“Is that your alarm clock?” He asked incredulously.

Bella grabbed her backpack and threw it over her shoulder, not sparing the pile of black plastic and loose wires even a glance.

“Used to be.” 

The puzzled look on his face almost made her laugh. Almost.

“Did it attack you in your sleep?” 

“Worse. It started playing music this morning.” 

“Oh. Yeah, I reset it last night to use the radio as the alarm instead of that god awful screeching it normally does. There was a classical station. I thought it would be nice for you to wake up peacefully for a change.” 

Guilt tore at Bella’s stomach. 

_I am officially the worst daughter ever._

“I’m sorry, dad.” Her brown eyes met his and she silently begged him to understand what she couldn’t possibly start to explain. 

“I just...I can’t-“ The words caught in her throat. She shook her head. 

_Don’t make me say it._

Charlie grabbed her and pulled her in for a tight hug. He had been doing that a lot lately she realized. After a moment he pulled back to look at her, a small sad smile on his lips.

“So no more classical.” Charlie shrugged. “Fine by me.” 

Bella did laugh that time.

**Author's Note:**

> Music is such a big part of my life that for someone to avoid it at all costs like Bella in New Moon is interesting to me so I wanted to play around with that a bit. I may do other small chapters like this with other devices/situations like Bella’s stereo in her truck, etc. but we’ll see.


End file.
